The venue

Venue

Dartington Hall

Dartington Hall is at the heart of a 1,200-acre medieval estate outside of Totnes, in South Devon. Dartington has a rich history dating back to the 14th century, with stories of royal visits, court intrigue, grand architecture, and family ruin in its granite bones. The modern Dartington has an 80-year history as a place for thought and creativity and for challenging the conventions of rural sustainability and rural life;

The nearest rail station is Totnes, which is on the west coast main line. See more detail below if you’re travelling from outside the UK.

Accommodation at Dartington Hall

Dartington Hall has a variety of accommodation available.

When booking you can choose to be resident on-site, or non-resident; if you’re staying on-site you can choose either hotel-style accommodation with private bathroom facilities in Dartington’s medieval courtyard, or single-room student accommodation with shared bathroom facilities.

If you’re attending one of our residential short courses pricing includes all meals. If you’re attending a symposium/conference event, registrationdoes not include your evening meal. There is a wide variety of food available at significantly different prices, from fine dining to bar food to informal pizza in our conference bar.

Travelling from outside the UK?

If you’re travelling from elsewhere in Europe, this website is an invaluable guide to all things rail, including the best ways to book tickets from outside the UK. Purchasing tickets in advance is considerably cheaper than just rolling up on the day and purchasing from a ticket office. Please note (sadly) that rail fares in the UK are expensive.

Wherever you’re travelling from, there is good information here. It may be worth purchasing a ‘BritRail England Pass’ as this may possibly be cheaper than a single return journey from London to Totnes.

A cheaper alternative to rail travel is to travel by coach. Use this website to find out more.

Coming by air

If you are flying into London, you will need to find your way to Paddington Station in central London. The best (if not necessarily the cheapest) way to do this is via the Heathrow Express.

Exeter is quite a small regional airport. You may well end up coming into London, in which case you will most likely come in to Heathrow. If it is possible to fly directly into Exeter, you are likely to find this a considerably cheaper option, even if the airfare itself is more expensive than flying into London. It may also be cheaper to book a connecting flight from London to Exeter than taking the train (despite the additional carbon cost – we are unhappy with our government’s approach to rail pricing, which ought to be subsidised as the more environmental option, but which is not).

Environmental footprint

We’re very aware that any event such as this one that attracts an international group of people is environmentally costly. We believe that there is significant value to the planet in bringing people together, face-to-face, to talk about and find solutions to the challenges we face as a society and as an ecological system.

We’ll do all we can to minimise additional environmental costs within the event itself. Dartington has recently installed both a large solar farm and two biomass boilers, so now generates almost half if its power needs through these renewable / sustainable sources. The kitchens use food grown either directly on the estate, or as nearby as possible. We try to minimise use of virgin resources by using as much recycled material as possible, and this website is hosted by a company that uses 100% renewable energy.